Sisters under the Skin: Women and the Women's League in Zambia

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Periodical article

Title:	Sisters under the Skin: Women and the Women's League in Zambia
Author:	Geisler, Gisela
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	25
Issue:	1
Period:	March
Pages:	43-66
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zambia
Subjects:	women's organizations Politics and Government Women's Issues Equality and Liberation organizations Development and Technology Status of Women
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/160966
Abstract:	The Women's League of the Zambian United National Independence Party has never endeavoured to be the mass organization of Zambian women it purports to be. It reflects the gaps between rural and urban, educated and uneducated, older and younger, married and single women in Zambia. It has mainly attracted the older urban women with little or no formal education. Furthermore the League was directed by the dominant male bureaucracy into an effective instrument to deepen the gaps and spur on the 'war between women', thus preventing a 'war between the sexes'. This paper discusses the role of the Women's League, possibilities and constraints on women's involvement in politics, and rural women's concerns. It argues that contacts between the now almost totally divorced rural and urban women might give the needed momentum towards an effective national movement. Notes, ref.